Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce the names of its 42 newly elected partners and 20 lawyers newly promoted to counsel, listed below by office and area of practice. These individuals will become partners and counsel in the firm effective January 1, 2022.
“This class of partners and counsel embody our talent, teamwork, results ethos,” said Mike Schmidtberger, chair of Sidley’s Executive Committee. “They are world-class lawyers from offices across the globe devoted to their clients and their colleagues. We are proud to have them join the partnership or advance to counsel in the new year.”
“We had a significant increase in the number of lawyers that became partner and counsel this year,” said Larry Barden, chair of Sidley’s Management Committee. “These are the future leaders of the firm and they have earned the respect of all of our clients and partners and we look forward to their continued contributions to our success.”
The new Sidley partners are as follows:
Boston
Elizabeth A. Marino, Regulatory and Enforcement, assists broker-dealers, investment advisers, financial institutions and exchanges with regulatory compliance and enforcement matters.
Doreen M. Rachal, Litigation, focuses her practice on white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and criminal and civil government investigations, including grand jury matters. She also has experience with complex civil litigation, asset forfeiture, healthcare fraud litigation, securities litigation and enforcement, and compliance with the USA PATRIOT Act, Bank Secrecy Act and related anti-money laundering requirements.
Century City
Mark K. Castiglia, M&A and Private Equity, works on global corporate and private equity transaction matters with a focus on privately held companies, private equity funds, and strategic investors in connection with mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity offerings, corporate restructurings, and general corporate matters.
Gabrielle Cuskelly, Real Estate, focuses heavily toward the hospitality industry where she advises private equity funds, management companies, investment banks, institutional lenders, life insurance companies, and other real estate investors on both cross-border and domestic transactions.
Keith Hayden Del Prete, Real Estate, focuses on advising owners, investors, lenders and operators in connection with acquisitions, dispositions, and financings of traditional real estate and hospitality properties.
Emily Zipperstein, M&A and Private Equity, focuses on mergers and acquisitions, as well as digital media and commercial transactions.
Chicago
Kelechi E. Adibe, Global Finance, represents and advises commercial banks, direct lending funds, investment banks, private equity and financial sponsors, hedge funds, insurance companies, and public and private companies. His work spans a wide range of financial markets and deal sizes, from middle market financings to investment grade and large corporate borrower financings.
Karim Basaria, Litigation, represents individual and corporate clients in white collar and securities enforcement matters, internal investigations, and complex civil litigation.
Christopher Y. Lee, Litigation, practices in the areas of securities and shareholder claims, general commercial litigation, particularly relating to software development and implementation disputes, and commodities and futures disputes and investigations.
Joseph P. Michaels, M&A and Private Equity, focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, and corporate finance transactions. Joe also advises public and private companies regarding corporate governance, SEC disclosure, fiduciary duties, and general corporate matters.
Joseph E. Schwartz, Investment Funds, focuses his practice on the formation and operation of private funds and M&A transactions in the investment management space. His private fund formation practice spans across the liquidity spectrum, including hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, credit funds, special situation funds, and other alternative investment funds.
David K. Solow, Global Finance, focuses on representation of banks, alternative asset funds, asset-backed commercial paper conduits, corporate borrowers and other financial intermediaries in structured finance, asset securitization and secured lending transactions.
Matthew D. Stoker, M&A and Private Equity, concentrates his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital investments and emerging company representation, corporate governance and SEC disclosure matters.
Dallas
Karen Goldstein, Global Finance, focuses her practice on finance transactions, including acquisition financing, asset-based and leveraged lending, investment-grade lending, mezzanine financing and subordinated debt financing. Karen primarily represents private equity sponsors, corporate borrowers, and financial institutions.
Lauren G. Grau, M&A and Private Equity, advises emerging and public companies, private equity firms and individuals on a wide range of intellectual property-related issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, collaborations, strategic investments, financing transactions, licensing and services agreements. Her practice focuses on representing clients in the life sciences, telecommunications, information technology, software, media and consumer products sectors.
Hong Kong
David Kalani Lee, Investment Funds, focuses on M&A, venture capital and private equity investments, investment fund formation, joint ventures and general corporate and transactional matters. He has worked on a variety of complex cross-border M&A transactions in China, Japan and the U.S., including both inbound and outbound investments.
Claudia Yu, China Corporate and Finance, focuses on general commercial and corporate finance matters including initial public offerings, secondary offerings, mergers and acquisitions and Hong Kong Listing Rules compliance matters.
Houston
Atman Shukla, Energy and Infrastructure, focuses on mergers and acquisitions and investment transactions (including joint ventures) for clients in the energy and infrastructure space, including upstream, oilfield services, midstream and downstream (including power, refining and trading). Atman’s practice also includes aviation matters, particularly in the regional airline space and more recently in sustainable aviation.
London
Gordon Davidson, Restructuring, has extensive experience in complex domestic and cross-border financial restructurings, contentious and non-contentious insolvencies and workouts.
William Gwyn, Global Finance, has experience acting for private equity sponsors in leveraged finance transactions, high yield offerings, syndicated lending, refinancings and general banking.
Peter McCorkell, Labor, Employment and Immigration, advises on a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment and employee benefits matters, with a focus on multinational corporate and financial services clients.
James Phythian-Adams, Insurance, focuses on corporate, commercial and regulatory work for insurance companies, insurance intermediaries, Lloyd’s managing agencies, and Lloyd’s syndicates.
New York
Azad Assadipour, Investment Funds, primarily advises buy-side clients in connection with all aspects of their trading, structuring, and documenting of derivatives and securities transactions. Azad works with a variety of clients including hedge funds, registered investment companies, private equity funds and their portfolio companies, pension funds, insurance companies, energy companies, sovereign entities, and other large corporate end users of derivatives.
Francesca E. Brody, Litigation, has experience representing clients in securities litigation and arbitrations. She has represented broker-dealers in more than a dozen FINRA securities arbitration proceedings.
William E. Curtin, Restructuring, focuses his practice on corporate reorganization, bankruptcy, bankruptcy litigation, and other insolvency-related matters.
Simon Navarro, Litigation, focuses on international arbitration and litigation, with an emphasis on Latin America and Spain.
Charlotte Newell, Litigation, focuses her practice on stockholder class and derivative actions, M&A litigation, securities class actions, and investment fund matters.
Alan E. Rothman, Litigation, has extensive experience with the various facets of multidistrict litigation, class action and individual mass tort products liability litigation.
Jessica Wood, M&A and Private Equity, focuses her practice on corporate and securities matters, including public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, corporate governance, capital markets, and shareholder activism.
San Francisco
Rachelle Soderstrom, M&A and Private Equity, counsels clients on a range of technology and IP matters, primarily in the context of mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, licensing, development, marketing, distribution, and manufacturing transactions.
Sue Wang, IP Litigation, focuses on patent litigation in the life sciences, with particular emphasis on biologics and biotechnology. She has represented clients in all stages of litigation, from pre-suit investigation through trial and appeal in federal court, and has argued claim construction and dispositive motions.
Singapore
Alexius Chong, Capital Markets, has extensive experience in a wide range of capital markets transactions in Asia and other markets, including representing issuers and underwriters in initial public offerings, private placements, high-yield and investment-grade debt offerings, and offerings of convertible and exchangeable debt, with a focus on Southeast Asia.
Shu Min Ho, Litigation, focuses on internal investigations and compliance counselling, and she has handled a wide spectrum of complex litigation and regulatory investigations. She has particular experience in cross-border investigations in the pharmaceutical and medical device sectors, with a focus on bribery, corruption, and money laundering issues.
Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Hardcastle, Healthcare and FDA, provides strategic regulatory counseling to a wide range of pre-commercial and established healthcare companies. She focuses her practice on healthcare regulatory and compliance matters and has extensive experience in federal healthcare program coverage, coding, and reimbursement issues; government price reporting; healthcare compliance programs; market access and healthcare contracting; and healthcare fraud and abuse.
Shawn M. Higgins, Litigation, has experience in a variety of trade remedy matters, including major anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations and reviews before the U.S. Department of Commerce and investigations before the International Trade Commission. Shawn also counsels companies, trade associations, and governments on issues related to international trade compliance and the use of World Trade Organization rules to open markets and resolve disputes.
Christopher Hutchison, Energy and Infrastructure, focuses on project finance, project and portfolio mergers and acquisitions, development financing, equity investments and joint ventures and related transactions in the renewable and conventional power markets as well as for infrastructure and industrial assets.
J. Simone Jones, Regulatory and Enforcement, focuses in complex environmental litigation and internal investigations, particularly in the automotive, chemical, and refining sectors.
Lauren Cranford Katzeff, IP Litigation, focuses her practice on litigation and regulatory issues facing life sciences and technology clients, primarily in the areas of biologics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotechnology, and consumer electronics.
Christopher R. Mills, Regulatory and Enforcement, represents clients in examinations, investigations and enforcement actions involving the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and other regulators.
Julia G. Mirabella, Litigation, advises clients on a broad range of issues in connection with government and internal investigations, special committee and board-led investigations, whistleblower complaints, and building, enhancing and testing compliance programs.
Benjamin M. Mundel, Litigation, represents leading pharmaceutical, telecommunications and financial services firms at trial and arbitration.
Jon S. Zucker, Healthcare and FDA, works with clients and investors to structure and negotiate sophisticated transactions and address complex regulatory challenges. He frequently serves as healthcare regulatory counsel for major acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, strategic affiliations, and other arrangements. He is also regularly engaged on behalf of private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies operating in the healthcare industry.
The following lawyers will be counsel effective January 1, 2022.
Beijing
Leonard Lou, Capital Markets, focuses on corporate finance transactions, including Hong Kong and U.S. registered initial public offerings, debt offerings pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S, private equity investment, and mergers and acquisitions transactions.
Boston
Louisa Kiu, Investment Funds, focuses on representing mutual funds, private funds and their investment advisers. She advises investment advisers on the structuring, documentation and offering of U.S. and non-U.S. private funds, including hedge funds, closed-end credit funds, and real estate funds.
Chicago
Christopher M. Assise, Litigation, is dedicated to the representation of insurance and financial services companies in litigation and regulatory disputes. Christopher’s practice has focused on defending property, casualty, accident and health insurers against consumer class actions across the country.
Alexander M. Hirshfeld, Global Finance, primarily focuses on private placements of debt, equity and hybrid securities, including Rule 144A, Regulation D, Regulation S offerings, 4(a)(2) private placements, initial public offerings, and cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
J.P. Hong, Insurance, focuses on a variety of corporate, securities and regulatory matters relating to the insurance and financial services industry, including the representation of investment banks, the representation of sponsors, issuers, underwriters and investors, the representation of corporates in connection with their captive insurance and reinsurance programs, and the representation of commercial banks.
Rina Mady, Healthcare and FDA, focuses her practice primarily on healthcare regulatory, compliance, and legislative matters. This includes HIPAA and HITECH implementation and compliance, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and coverage, government price reporting for pharmaceutical products, healthcare compliance programs, and compliance with Stark and Anti-Kickback laws.
Dallas
Sean Damm, Global Finance, focuses on financing transactions, including private equity-backed financings, acquisition financings, syndicated financings, cash flow-based lending, asset-based lending, investment grade lending and direct lending transactions. Sean represents both borrowers and financial institutions and has been involved in a variety of financing transactions both domestically and internationally.
Marian Fielding, Tax, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, assists clients on the employee benefits aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions and advising clients regarding executive compensation disclosure under the federal securities laws.
David Silva, Litigation, defends companies and their directors, officers, and employees in complex criminal and civil investigations, environmental government enforcement actions, and white collar matters. He frequently represents clients in issues arising out of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as well as the False Claims Act, financial reporting misstatements, regulatory fraud, environmental violations, and employee misconduct.
Shannon Thompson, Investment Funds, focuses on private alternative investment funds, their structuring, management and related regulatory matters. She advises and represents clients in the organization and operation of hedge funds, funds of funds, commodity pools, and private equity-style funds.
Hong Kong
Nathaniel Lai, Litigation, has handled and acted for clients in international arbitration cases conducted under various institutional and ad hoc rules (including the ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, LCIA, ICDR-AAA, UNCITRAL, CIETAC and CAA Taiwan) and in a wide variety of areas including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, fraud, construction, sale of goods, and technology disputes.
Houston
Conrad J. Coutinho, Litigation, focuses on litigation and dispute resolution for energy and financial industry participants. He also represents companies and their officers and directors in internal and independent investigations of corporate conduct, compliance, and reporting, including representing audit committees and special litigation committees in such matters.
Michael Fishel, Restructuring, focuses on advising both debtor and creditor clients through complex chapter 11 restructurings, out-of-court reorganizations and refinancings, and contested business litigation proceedings.
Matthew B. Walker, Energy and Infrastructure, principally focuses on transactions in the energy industry, including representation of financial institutions and energy companies in energy financings and commodity and hedging transactions.
London
Benedetta Pacifico, Capital Markets, has extensive experience of acting for issuers and arrangers on a wide range of transactions including regulatory and hybrid capital instruments, debt restructurings, exchange offers, other liability management transactions, and the establishment and update of EMTN and GMTN programs and related issues. She also has a strong interest and focus on ESG in finance and capital markets.
New York
Elizabeth Gates, Litigation, represents clients in litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the United States. Her commercial litigation and disputes practice is focused on commercial disputes including breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other business torts, securities disputes, derivatives and securities trading, and bankruptcy disputes.
Singapore
Ji Ung Kim, M&A and Private Equity, has extensive experience advising on complex cross-border private equity matters, with a particular focus on the real estate sector, across the Asia Pacific region and Europe, including buyouts, minority and strategic investments, disposals, joint ventures, platform formations, and limited partner investments as well as asset, development, and hotel management arrangements.
Washington, D.C.
Marc A. Korman, Regulatory and Enforcement, practices before the Federal Communications Commission and Federal and state courts in the media, common carrier, international and wireless fields. He represents broadcast television and radio stations, wireless operators and other telecommunications companies, equipment manufacturers and lending institutions regarding FCC regulations and related communications law issues.
Ray Mangum, Litigation, represents clients in a variety of government investigation and civil litigation matters, including healthcare and government contracts matters arising pursuant to the False Claims Act. He maintains an active eDiscovery counseling practice, where he advises some of the nation’s largest and most technologically advanced companies.
Sarah A. Tucker, Energy and Infrastructure, represents financial institutions, energy and commodity companies, and trade associations in a variety of transactional, regulatory, and risk management matters.
With 2,000 lawyers in 20 offices around the globe, Sidley is a premier legal adviser for clients across the spectrum of industries. Follow Sidley on Twitter @SidleyLaw.